Sunday, August 21, 2005

On Souls And Desperation

-You don't have a soul. You are a Soul. You have a body. -- C.S. Lewis

That is the thrust of our existence, if you care to believe it. We are souls moving through physical space, making decisions and living with consequences. The moral compass that guides our journey is one that we ourselves must develop throughout our physical lifetime. For the dogmatically religious, like me, this means we follow set patterns of behavior as prescribed by our doctrine. For other good people, it means we try to remain morally right for honor and/or humanistic reasons.

Or, if you choose, we are merely physical forms, devoid of real spirituality and possessed of nothing more than the ability to manipulate the physical world according to our means. No spiritual consequences... no need for moral compasses. We simply exist for undetermined and quite random reasons and that is that. Belief systems and "honor" are secondary to the greater good of the planet, as we see it.

Then, there is a third choice. We can start with a spiritual and decent background and then choose to throw it all away for earthly rewards. This is what we will talk about now.

Selling one's soul. What exactly does that mean? To me, it means foregoing a real and true belief system and embracing something anathema to it to gain certain worldly things. If you are religious in nature and practice, you might see this as literally giving up your eternal soul to the dark ones- Satan and his minions. If you are not particularly religious but still moral and honorable, you would likely see it as turning your back on the right thing in favor of something dark and wrong.

"Dark and wrong" brings us to today's liberals.

I can tell you from personal experience that the Democratic party has been completely co-opted by the insane and deranged far left. I was raised a Democrat in a strong Catholic, union family. My father is still a Democrat. He is also very likely the most Conservative man I have ever met in person. He is very loyal and old school and will not change his affiliation because he does not want to believe that his party is now the enemy of him and everyone else who loves America. His generation did as much or more than any other to make us the great nation that we are... and loyalty- although sometimes misplaced- is one of the qualities they possess in great supply. He does rail and lobby against the aclu and the abortionists... and that has to be enough for now, I suppose. With each passing year, I can see the cognitive dissonance growing in him and others in my family. Some, like me, have escaped the madness altogether.

When we all saw michael moore sitting in the presidential booth with Jimmah Catah at their convention last year, we pretty much knew that the Democrats had taken the final turn 'round the bend. The once proud party of JFK, Harry Truman, and Scoop Jackson is now the party of jane fonda, michael moore, and cindy sheehan. How did this happen?

What, for example, made Ted Kennedy, Dick "Turbin" Durbin, and Al Gore (to name only a few) decide that killing unborn babies was suddenly okay, after all? They had all been pro-life before... before...

What makes the party of JFK- a Catholic- support an organization like the aclu, which is dedicated to the eradication of Christianity in America? This would not have been possible before... before...

What accounts for former president Carter going to foreign nations and talking very, very badly about America and our current war? No former president would ever have done this before... before...

What makes the senior Democrat in the Senate call the President of the United States a "loser" to a group of school kids? This was unthinkable before... before...

What makes them stand up in the halls of Congress and slander our military people, time and time again- just to "get" this President? This would have been looked at as sedition before... before...

What makes them conduct a systematic campaign to undermine the war we are fighting- bringing more danger and greater threats to our troops? This simply would not have happened before... before...

Before what?

Before they all sold their souls.

Think I'm being melodramatic? Consider the old adage:

POWER CORRUPTS, AND ABSOLUTE POWER CORRUPTS ABSOLUTELY. William Pitt (1708-78), British conservative politician, in a speech on January 9, 1770, said: "Unlimited power is apt to corrupt the minds of those who possess it."

I would add that LOSING absolute power can bring the kind of desperation that invites almost immediate corruption. That is what has happened to the Democrats in America. They had, for years, enjoyed the sometimes well-earned reputation of being "for the little guy." They had control of virtually all of our governmental bodies (SEE THIS POST), as well as a good relationship with most "normal" Americans.

Think of it- to have near absolute power of the nation and then, one day, it begins to erode away. That has to cause some major collective trauma. In fact, I submit that it has caused a creeping desperation that is now a full-blown, collective panic.

Somewhere- in the mid Sixties, I think- the party began taking in mongrels and charlatans. The "umbrella" of the party was deemed big enough to let in anyone and everyone. This was the beginning of the end. Suddenly, the party of Harry Truman and John Kennedy was aligned with jane fonda and the "counter-culture" crowd. Why? Because they kept letting them in and refused to shut the door- thinking that greater "diversity" must mean greater power.

It didn't take long for them to realize that the new members of the party were not going to quietly go along for the ride. No... they were starting to insist on things. Abortion on demand. Shunning of the military. "Free love." No "censorship" of TV and other media. In short, Marx and Lenin's useful idiots had finally come into their own and found a welcome mat outside the Democratic party headquarters.

Shoring up the reins of power in the party, the new Democrats began to implement as much of their "progressive" agenda as possible. Even with Republican Presidents in power- like Nixon and Ford- they still managed to keep their agenda alive and rolling. They met fairly stiff resistance from many good Americans who saw what was happening, but they nonetheless prevailed in most of their aims- as they still had a very strong traditional support base, like my family.

They also had firm control of the media and the entertainment industry. The good Americans who had populated hollywood through most of the 20th century were being replaced with the new age of celebrities- those who embraced the "counter-culture" drug and sex lifestyle. This meant that the "progressives" had control of what Americans saw on screens and heard on radios. More than any other factor, this is what allowed the liberals to get even the time of day from most Americans. Pure and simple media distortion and deception on a massive scale.

The wheels really started to come off when Carter's bumbling tour of presidential duty got underway. They now had the Congress AND the presidency... and they were able to pass virtually anything they wanted. What did that get us? Out of control inflation, a wrecked economy, "malaise", and a greatly weakened military, for starters. Carter, in fact, is probably the best example of soul-selling that we could look at. He was almost surely a very sincere and decent man when he was elected. Americans saw that and trusted him. His ineptitude was caused by a number of things, only some of which were evil forces surrounding him. No, he became rotten and evil inside only after the power vacuum had reached its pinnacle years later. In any case, his presidency transformed all of the pain and grief that America was still feeling from Vietnam into a massive ball of self-pity and sorrow... and we wallowed in it for years.

Then, the other shoe fell. The world was paying attention to our stumbling and decided to take advantage. The most notable example of this was when the islamo-fascists decided to make their debut on the modern world stage. With the weakest administration in our history at the controls, the islamists were able to hold our country hostage for over a year. Remember that? Remember how humiliating it was to see the day counter at the top of the newspaper EVERY DAY for FOUR HUNDRED, FORTY-FOUR DAYS? I remember it. In fact, it still fuels my deepest feelings of outrage.

The soul of our country was now at stake. But most of us decided that it was time to wake up and stop this madness. After all, we did not drink their kool-aid... we wanted no part of this appeasement and "malaise". Fortunately, we did the right thing and elected the man who brought our national spirit back from the brink of Europeanism. Thank God.

We slipped up again in 1992 and allowed an infatuation with a third party candidate to cloud our judgment. Through the side door, we let in the most morally bankrupt administration in our nation's history... with a solid 43 percent victory. Beyond how pathetic that is... it also tells us that we were once again falling victim to the media pressures. The ineptitude of those eight years brought the islamo-fascists many victories and set the stage for the horror that would be 9/11.

After the attack, most of our country woke up. Many who had previously sold their souls decided to buy them back. Some of the greatest voices in the Conservative movement were baptized by fire on September 11th, 2001. We banded together and supported this leader who made us all feel better on that awful day. For a while, it seemed that horror had turned to magic and restored our national unity.

The thing about selling souls, though, is that some demons don't offer "refunds". It wasn't long before the evil ones were back at their work. Trying to stop the President from protecting us, and even siding with the jihadists- lionizing them and comparing them to our own founding fathers. If that doesn't reek of evil, then please tell me what does.

Now we stand at another historic moment. The soulless liberals are engaged in their greatest fight yet. They are exhausting all of their resources, calling in all of their old favors... all to ensure that America loses the war we are in. They are still very proud of making America leave Vietnam before the job was done... in fact, that was their greatest triumph... and they want that feeling again. Badly. Like a heroin junky wants his next fix. Yes, that badly.

The raw power that they crave is the substitute for the religion they long ago abandoned. The aching emptiness inside them- where their souls used to be- cries out to be filled with something (nature abhors a vacuum, after all). That something is the kind of feeling that would come with defeating this President and all he stands for. That feeling would bring back some of the lost glory and power that they once wielded. That feeling would put all of us Conservatives back in our place. That feeling would ensure that the eight year party they enjoyed during the 90's would be on again.

We are in the condition we are in because a good number of our citizens have sold their souls in one way or another. It was either to a real demon, or to a metaphorical one... either way, they are devoid of anything resembling a soul.

If you don't believe that, then I'm open to any other explanation as to why so many Americans are acting to destroy their own country.

9 Comments:

I don't usually last on the long posts, but this one kept me spellbound! You spoke for lots of us out here who still back the President and the war and love our country AND GOD!

Scripture speaks of 'my people'.....if we have God's spirit within us, then we are 'His people'. And, HIS PEOPLE are going to act like He acted, with love. We are going to put away all the 'anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of our mouths. There are so many people that name the name of God, but act like the devil! If this country is going to stand, we have to get back to what this country was founded on - Christian principles, and defeat the cause of 'self'......self will get you in trouble, but GOD can get us out of it all.

"The raw power that they crave is the substitute for the religion they long ago abandoned. The aching emptiness inside them- where their souls used to be- cries out to be filled with something (nature abhors a vacuum, after all)."

Nature may, but Satan doesn't.

My Dad is like yours---one of the Old School Democrats who feels a terminal disconnect with his lifelong party. Dad can be progressive in his own way, but more in the Truman/Kennedy tradition than in the nihilists who now rule. In fact, Dad is a proud Cold Warrior who sent B-36 Peacemakers of on their missions of deterrence as a member of SAC during the Berlin Wall crisis. He has never, EVER, expressed regret for doing this and blamed the US for the Cold War; quite the opposite. He has always said he'd do it again in a heartbeat, and he was fully committed to launching the ships every time an alert went down, even though he knew it "might be for real this time." He never hesitated. When I was younger, this horrified me. How could this decent, gentle, honorable man launch weapons knowing that he might be ending human life on earth as we knew it? It is only with the passage of time that I realize the enormity of the courage and committment needed to do such a thing, and I respect and love him all the more for it. It is hard for me to look at him and realize that the party to which he has given his life-long allegiance has gone so far from the ideals he espouses, and I know he feels it almost as a personal injury and a betrayal. It is heartening to realize, however, that even though they may have been abandoned by their party, there are Demos like our fathers who never lost their souls in the name of filling up the "big tent."

A very good and very thought-provoking post; a good Sunday meditation on the dangers of replacing God with the false idols of secular humanism.

Wow... thanks for adding that, Tsar. I think there are lots of old timers like our fathers out there... and, in time, the liberals will have chased all of them away. That's the day I'm waiting for... when they're swallowed by their own irrelevance.